Comments on: Sunday Open Thread: Blue, Green, and Teal

By: L. Smith

L. Smith — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:56:12 +0000

Mine’s 10062xxx, but it sis also the one on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORCA_Card

By: L. Smith

L. Smith — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:51:46 +0000

Are all of WTA’s buses getting redone to this? Or just new ones?

By: Jeff Welch

Jeff Welch — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:52:54 +0000

Probably the same folks who came up with the new Metro slogan:

“We’ll get you there!”

The first time I heard that one over my PA system – I couldn’t help thinking: “shouldn’t we be aiming a little higher than that?”

By: Mike Orr

Mike Orr — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:11:48 +0000

Hey, I like picking up one of those to read on the bus, especially if it’s a Seattle Times or New York Times. Some people complain about newspapers left on buses, but I’m glad they’re there.

By: Tim Whittome

Tim Whittome — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:55:12 +0000

Thanks! Is that a new Amtrak bus service or an existing one?

By: alexjonlin

alexjonlin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:55:59 +0000

I’m definitely not complaining about them… so much more comfortable than your average bus.

By: G

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:13:50 +0000

the upper management constently leave the drivers out of the loop, so you can’t blame the driver..when the bays were changed at aurora village, ct drivers were notified by a note on the white board that morning.

By: Kaleci

Kaleci — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:00:52 +0000

Tim,
The later train from Leavenworth is a Trailways bus.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:15:25 +0000

I’ll give you the link where you can pay my tuition. My $99/quarter U-Pass is part of my tutiion.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:01:11 +0000

How can we buy you guys more fare for your e-purse if you don’t put the whole number?

By: Tim Whittome

Tim Whittome — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:07:18 +0000

Excellent, Brian! I like the sound of that one. I had to read it twice though because I thought for a minute that you were saying that folks returning from Leavenworth were wishing there was an earlier train! That couldn’t be so – we need a later train returning from Leavenworth. When I next go to Leavenworth, I want to take the train but the money to stay in town!

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:00:50 +0000

Mike:

You’re not the only one! The alternate text for the image of the “blue” bus on this Metro page says “A purple Metro bus”.

-Rob

By: marcus

marcus — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:35:35 +0000

I agree, Metro color scheme is so uninspiring and boring. Its a shame that all the other transit agencies in Washington seem to have a better taste of style with their buses and graphics. Swift color scheme and graphics look so much better than Rapid Ride. Every time I see that color scheme I think of Mc Donald’s. P-yuck, who come with Metro graphics and colors anyways?

By: Brian Bundridge

Brian Bundridge — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:07:52 +0000

Tim,

I’m not sure if this is true or not, but the Empire Builder had to tag an extra coach on Fridays Seattle departure for folks going to Octoberfest in Leavenworth.

Not sure how things looked on the way back though but a friend of mine said on his way back to Spokane, there was at least 60 that got on there and all wished there was an earlier train.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:58:10 +0000

Most of the bus drivers appear to be dreading November 1, but have adopted an upbeat and gently activist approach to the inevitable. They’re simply telling every rider who asks for a transfer that paper transfers are going away on October 31, and are encouraging the person to get an ORCA card. A number of riders have gotten into the spirit of the thing, happily showing their ORCA cards to those without, talking up the project, and noting that the cards are free until February 1.

Way to go drivers and riders! I love it when people take matters into their own hands.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:32:36 +0000

Some systems (Bangkok, Taipei, Delhi, Shenzhen, etc.) use RFID tokens which are basically plastic coins with the smart chip inside it. You use it like a normal smart card to enter and drop it into the fare gate to exit the system. However, I think that only works for closed systems. Or they could put a deposit value on them. Return the tokens for reuse and get your deposit back. That reduces waste from disposable tickets.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:22:30 +0000

The WTA’s dots and waves remind me of a 2-liter Coke bottle, just not colored red.

By: barman

barman — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:22:25 +0000

Looks nice, but is it really that revolutionary? I haven’t seen any of KC Ferry’s designs, but I’d logically expect something similar to that. Then again, this could be something that just seems so obvious and right that Seattle decides to go with something completely different for complexity’s sake…

By: barman

barman — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:20:04 +0000

Count me in for thinking this as super lame. I’ll blame it on a cost saving measure that CT will remedy with more funding later on, but still, lame.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:18:55 +0000

Dang! You beat me on the first day by 19000 numbers. I got mine that morning of the first day.